Anti-Sensing: Defense against Unauthorized Radar-based Human Vital Sign Sensing with Physically Realizable Wearable Oscillators

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Oshim, Md Farhan Tasnim, Doering, Nigel, Islam, Bashima, Weng, Tsui-Wei, Rahman, Tauhidur
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Oshim, Md Farhan Tasnim
Doering, Nigel
Islam, Bashima
Weng, Tsui-Wei
Rahman, Tauhidur
author_facet Oshim, Md Farhan Tasnim
Doering, Nigel
Islam, Bashima
Weng, Tsui-Wei
Rahman, Tauhidur
contents Recent advancements in Ultra-Wideband (UWB) radar technology have enabled contactless, non-line-of-sight vital sign monitoring, making it a valuable tool for healthcare. However, UWB radar's ability to capture sensitive physiological data, even through walls, raises significant privacy concerns, particularly in human-robot interactions and autonomous systems that rely on radar for sensing human presence and physiological functions. In this paper, we present Anti-Sensing, a novel defense mechanism designed to prevent unauthorized radar-based sensing. Our approach introduces physically realizable perturbations, such as oscillatory motion from wearable devices, to disrupt radar sensing by mimicking natural cardiac motion, thereby misleading heart rate (HR) estimations. We develop a gradient-based algorithm to optimize the frequency and spatial amplitude of these oscillations for maximal disruption while ensuring physiological plausibility. Through both simulations and real-world experiments with radar data and neural network-based HR sensing models, we demonstrate the effectiveness of Anti-Sensing in significantly degrading model accuracy, offering a practical solution for privacy preservation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_10864
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Anti-Sensing: Defense against Unauthorized Radar-based Human Vital Sign Sensing with Physically Realizable Wearable Oscillators
Oshim, Md Farhan Tasnim
Doering, Nigel
Islam, Bashima
Weng, Tsui-Wei
Rahman, Tauhidur
Human-Computer Interaction
Cryptography and Security
Recent advancements in Ultra-Wideband (UWB) radar technology have enabled contactless, non-line-of-sight vital sign monitoring, making it a valuable tool for healthcare. However, UWB radar's ability to capture sensitive physiological data, even through walls, raises significant privacy concerns, particularly in human-robot interactions and autonomous systems that rely on radar for sensing human presence and physiological functions. In this paper, we present Anti-Sensing, a novel defense mechanism designed to prevent unauthorized radar-based sensing. Our approach introduces physically realizable perturbations, such as oscillatory motion from wearable devices, to disrupt radar sensing by mimicking natural cardiac motion, thereby misleading heart rate (HR) estimations. We develop a gradient-based algorithm to optimize the frequency and spatial amplitude of these oscillations for maximal disruption while ensuring physiological plausibility. Through both simulations and real-world experiments with radar data and neural network-based HR sensing models, we demonstrate the effectiveness of Anti-Sensing in significantly degrading model accuracy, offering a practical solution for privacy preservation.
title Anti-Sensing: Defense against Unauthorized Radar-based Human Vital Sign Sensing with Physically Realizable Wearable Oscillators
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.10864